Good morning positive people.
Arsenal Andrew has a few words of wisdom for us and the fanbase.
“Well, we did predict a more subdued performance following the thrillers v LFC and Citeh, and so it proved. All eyes on the cup final, one imagines and it would not surprise me if Watford cause more anguish in the meantime.
I think we have to understand that the Mikel Arteta direction of travel is where we want it to be, even if the squad currently is not. And let’s bear in mind it took Klopp 4 years and £400 million to create today’s Liverpool juggernaut** and even Ol’ Red Nose was close to the sack before his Man u came good. Okay, I know it only took Arsene Wenger one full season but hey, let’s be reasonable, he had the benefit of being Arsene Wenger.
It’s taken Citeh years of unregulated and unpunished financial doping to come within 15 points of this year’s champions. So given the restrictions on funds, we have got to recognise that there is likely to be only so fast – and so far – that Arteta can currently go with Arsenal.
Wenger’s genius was to take a mid-table club with mid-table funding to be competitive at the top table, not just for a few seasons, but twenty. He was so successful at this that most observers felt it was the club’s DNA that took them to that point rather than one man’s brilliance. Some people spent ten years or more claiming Wenger should have done more with what he had.
History already suggests he did far more with the limited resources available, than anyone could reasonably expect. And we already know there are those with far more resources who have achieved far less and who have received a fraction of the criticism Arsene received.
So one can only hope that this AFC fanbase at least can be fully aware of this lesson, get behind Mikel, and give him the chance, measurable in MULTIPLE SEASONS, rather than games, to take us back to where Arsene routinely led us.
Obviously a first FA Cup would do very nicely indeed but a final in his first half season ain’t bad.”
Positively Arsenal 
Wise words AA.
for a club in our situation, with our relatively modest resources compared with rivals, a pandemic, big wage bill they look like reducing by whatever means, a clear issue with the PGMOL and ref selection that the club cannot or will not take on, a long running negative media, attention seeking idiots on utube, bitter ex players, Emery, Raul, agenda driven super agents, banner flying fans, a policy of playing youngsters, starting from a recently historically lowly position, mistakes from execs, with a new young manager ( who I believe will prove amazing assuming we can keep him) yes we need time.
A trophy this season would be nothing short of spectacular in the circumstances, indeed as AA says , making a final is pretty good going, and we have done that the hard way
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for posting George, and a great title, methinks (not my suggestion).
But, contrary to that title, I actually feel more optimistic now than at any time since Arsene Wenger left the club. The FA Cup aside(!) I don’t anticipate overnight success. But then we’ve never been an overnight sort of club – remember, our ‘foundations run deep’.
I feel there is much that is good about our incomplete squad, and we/Mikel really are not starting at some kind of ground zero. I think we are closer to being where we were when Wenger joined AFC than we might otherwise think. When Vieira appeared in an Arsenal jersey for the first time, I think many of us recognised from close to Day One that he ‘completed’ Wenger’s side (whoever Wenger was – he followed on from PV, a few months later, if memory serves).
And Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk seems to have completed Klopp’s side, in a similar way. They have become exceptionally hard to beat** with an aura to match.
Conversely, the loss to Man City of a player of the stature of Vincent Kompany and Hazard from Chelsea, have left both these latter two sides looking a shadow of their former sides, very much incomplete, compared to what preceded those departures.
So my hope is we may be that one key player away from major success. Our goalkeeping department has never looked better. Retaining Aubameyang up front, and bedding in (future captain) Tierney in the defence with the still under-appreciated Granit Xhaka still performing like rock just ahead of him on the field, then maybe this time our key addition will prove to be an attacking midfielder such as Chelsea’s alleged wantaway Willian, who could well complete the critical spine of Arteta’s first great side.
So maybe judge us in May 2022, instead (because no-one could possibly be successful in their first full season, right?).
** Except for Arsenal
LikeLike
Arsenal may have had mid table finances but they were a hardly a mid table club. In fact the ten seasons before Wenger arrived they only finished outside the top 6 twice and won the league twice. That doesn’t constitute a mid table club. Wenger did a vast amount for Arsenal, no dispute, but don’t paint us as some two bit minnows. We have to move on from revelling in the past and face the future which appears bleak at the moment but some of us have supported the club for fifty years and can recall the misery of the mid seventies. Arteta has a lot to do and we shan’t know if he’s capable of the task for at least a season or two. All we can do is wish him well and hope he has some backing from our mediocre owners.
LikeLike
Yes we won the league twice in the ten years before Arsene rocked our boat but in that time we also finished in the bottom half of the table and that wasn’t in a season of changing managers.
Finishing 6th then was classed as mid table because it was far away from European qualification and there wasn’t as many good teams around.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Agree with all your points AA and I also think Mandy’s comment right at the top is a very good addendum.
For all our expectations we also need to acknowledge our limitations. This is why I enjoyed our victories over England’s best two, especially since most predicted otherwise, and don’t really care how we went about it. Because… sometimes you need to get over the line using unconventional methods.
And for a rookie coach this covid-induced fixture congestion cannot be easy. Yes, as fans we want, expect or demand more but we should also manage our expectations (read Mandy’s comment at the top again).
I stand by my words the other, that certainly echo AA’s sentiments too, under Arteta we are heading the right way from where we were when he took over.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Saka will wear the no.7 jersey next season
LikeLike
seemingly William Saliba will wear the no.4 shirt next season
LikeLike
following on from the news we have Anthony Taylor as ref for the cup final, we get the news that our final league game of the season, v Watford on Sunday, we have Mike Dean as the game manager.
LikeLike
New post is up.
LikeLike